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Niizocraft wrote me a few months ago asking if I would be interested in a free bag kit to review for her etsy shop where she sells bag patterns and kits that are complete with all the materials you need to make her designs. I was honored by the request but my initial response was to say no- I don’t really do many sponsored posts, and at the time my schedule was too hectic with work and Christmas gift making to commit myself to a project with a deadline. However, I changed my mind after I went to the Niizocraft site and saw the patterns and bag kits that she sells. The designs are GLORIOUS, and I immediately saw three designs that I really wanted to make at some point in the future.

I loved the color collections that she put together for the kits- they were combos that I probably would never have chosen for myself, but they looked great together, and she had a nice range of canvas colors to select for the main fabric. I was intrigued by taking a more passive position behind the maker’s wheel and letting someone else do the work of fabric selection and material sourcing for once. So I changed my no to a yes (Niizocraft graciously allowed me to make the bag in my own time instead of giving me a deadline for the Christmas holidays) and I received the bag kit in a matter of days. I chose the mauve colored kit in the Sunny Day Canvas Bag design because I wanted something a little more chic and put together than the bags that I usually sub for purses on a daily basis. I, like most shoppers in metropolitan cities trying to do what they can to eliminate waste, have no less than 30 cloth shopping bags that I keep in the trunk of my car and various places around my house so that I don’t have to use paper or plastic in the check out line, and even though they are all stained and smell faintly of old vegetables, they are easy to grab when I’m running errands or heading off to appointments. Those cloth shopping bags get the job done but they aren’t very stylish, and the Sunny Day bag seemed like the perfect answer to my everyday bag needs. I love that it doesn’t have long handles where the bag part is constantly banging my waist- instead it’s designed to be worn high and close to the body. It’s also super roomy with LOT’s of pockets so I can put headshots, sides, books, my bullet journal AND my water bottle inside without losing track of where they are and having all the small items sink to the bottom (those large, deep pockets on either end of the inside of the bag fit my 32 ounce Nalgene water bottle with room to spare!)

I must say that I was super tickled to open the box from Niizocraft and see the all the contents so painstakingly organized, labeled and packaged. It even came with a little card that said “birth certificate” on it! Come on, that’s the freaking cutest thing ever! It reminds me of Cabbage Patch dolls! When choosing the kit I wanted, Niizocraft asked what I would like to be stamped on the leather tag that is sewn on the outside of the bag. I made a little squeal when I saw the stamped leather piece in the kit, complete with two leather needles and waxed nylon thread to sew onto the canvas. Also included were two zippers, belting, a brass hook, and enough canvas, batting, and nylon lining to complete the project, each with a label stuck onto it so you would know exactly what you needed to be working with: she includes every single thing you need to make her bags except the sewing machine.

As this was my first sewing project of the new year and I had not sewn anything for weeks thanks to the Christmas holidays, I was excited to have a simple project to ease me back into my groove, and this bag didn’t disappoint. I printed out my pattern pieces, loaded the instructions onto my iPad and went to work.

All in all I started and finished the bag in a little over a day. The instructions were mostly clear, but I had to rely on the photos a few times when I got stumped, and there were a couple of small typos I found, mostly in the measurements- if you have any experience sewing at all, these things would barely register as a blip on your radar. One things that was a little tricky for me were the seam allowances. Most of the seams of this bag are sewn at either 3/8″ (pretty standard) or 3/16″ (not as standard) so I had to pay close attention to when they allowances changed to make sure that I was actually sewing 3/16″ instead of 1/4″ since the former measurement is not marked on my machine. There are some construction techniques included in the instructions that I had never seen before- they were really fun to do, but they slowed me down a bit just because I was unfamiliar with them. This bag has a difficulty level of 4 out of 5 stars, which seemed accurate to me, but there are many bags on her site with varying levels, so a beginning sewist would probably do well so start out with a design that was a bit simpler (although it is certainly possible for a beginning sewist to complete this bag with no problem!)

I made one mistake with a couple of the pocket pieces that I didn’t realize til I had already sewn it to the bag, and then when I tried to unpick the seam with my seam ripper, I sliced open the canvas in a very obvious place! Thankfully I had juuuuust enough canvas left over to re-cut the pocket piece in the right size (two of the main fabric pocket pieces look the same but one is a little bit longer and I had used the wrong ones in the wrong areas). I reattached the correct sized piece to the bag and it looks terrific. This is one of my favorite parts of the bag- the outside piece of the outside pocket is folded up and sewn so that it conceals the zipper behind it. Very clever design element and it looks very sleek on the outside.

I am incredibly happy with how my Sunny Day Bag turned out and I am so glad that I added it to my roster of makes. As you can see, the Niizocraft designs are pretty fantastic, and I appreciate that you can buy them without having to get a whole kit if that’s not how you like to make things. BUT! I can also say that, as someone who prefers to choose her own fabrics and buy her own materials, it was such a treat to have everything done for me and just concentrate on the making. Obviously this is a great gift to give to a new sewist who might not have all the odds and ends in their arsenal needed to complete a bag of this caliber, but I think seasoned sewists would get just as much joy from a kit like this, too.

Now, for a short Part II of this blog post, I finallyyyyyyy made a True Bias Ogden Cami! It’s been on my list for the longest, I even drew it out in my fashion sketchbook, but it took me a really long time to finally make it. It’s an incredibly popular pattern (and now that I have made it I see why!) because it’s generally quick to make, it doesn’t take up a lot of yardage, and the results are beautiful and satisfying- it is flattering and pretty on every single person I have seen wearing it. Because it’s such a simple make I don’t have too much to say about it- the instructions were great and it came together in a few hours, AFTER I realized that I CUT THE BACK PIECE OUT IN A SIZE 12?!?! Hahahaha, y’all, I have NO IDEA what happened! I was just putting my pattern pieces away and I realized that my lining piece for the back was a way different size than the actual back piece. I laid it over the PDF of the pattern and yes indeed, the pattern piece was 4 sizes larger. The craziest thing about this is that the lining still fit! When I was lining up the pieces of the lining to the shell, I did notice that the side seams were not matching up at all, but I didn’t think much about it, I just eased some of the fabric on one side and gently stretched it on the other side, and the pieces fit together- you totally can’t tell from the outside! I must have been in a big hurry because the pattern lines are clear and the sizes aren’t confusing at all. So the back of my cami is a little wider than it would be if I had cut out a size 4 (I could have gone with a 2 but I didn’t want the bottom to hug my hips so I went with a 4 and shaved off a tiny bit of fabric under the armholes on each pattern piece).

All in all I am in LOVE with this cami! When visiting Seattle recently, my friends took me to a fabric store that had a bolt of sandwashed silk, which I hardly ever come across in person, so I got 1 yard, more of a souvenir than anything else. Of course I realized later that the Ogden would be perfect to use up that tiny cut of fabric, but I had to be VERY strategic in how I cut out my pattern pieces- it just barely fit onto the silk, and now I know why…because I was squeezing 4 additional sizes into one of the pattern pieces, lol! But I made it work, and the cami feels both dressy and casual at the same time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeowMJ7AFUB/?taken-by=jasikaistrycurious

I read somewhere, maybe in my comments on IG, that a lot of people found that the lining inside wasn’t long enough (it hits me just at the bottom of my boob), but since I didn’t have much fabric to work with I cut the pattern out as is, and so far I am happy with it. I am able to go braless with this tank because I am a card wielding member of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee, but maybe someone with bigger tatas might need more coverage with the lining to feel comfortable. The lining doesn’t offer any actual support, but it does provide an extra layer of fabric which feels a little more stable, like you aren’t wearing something that’s gonna blow away in the tiniest breeze. Since half of my tank is cut out in the wrong size, I feel like I can’t really speak to how the actual garment is supposed to fit, but I love how it billows and floats around my body without feeling like I am too exposed, and I love the slightly deeper curve of the back hem. The slight v of the neckline in the back and the straps hitting at the perfect place in the front are lovely, too- they make this garment look and feel both a little effortless and a little glam at the same time. Beautiful drafting and I can see myself wearing this garment all over this spring and summer…and fall, because, well, this is LA! (Ogden Cami is pictured with my latest pair of Ginger Jeans…will never tire of this pattern!)